On The Record

Weekdays, 9:30 to 10:00 am

Catch On the Record, hosted by Sheilah Kast, weekdays from 9:30 to 10:00 am, following NPR’s Morning Edition. We’ll discuss the issues that affect your life and bring you thoughtful and lively conversations with the people who shape those issues -- business people, public officials, scholars, artists, authors, and journalists who can take us inside the story. If you want to share a comment, question, or an idea for an interview you’d like to hear, email us at ontherecord@wypr.org.

Theme music created by Jon Ehrens. Logo designed by Louis Umerlik.

Ways to Connect

A year ago, Maryland began issuing licenses for direct-entry midwives--someone who is not a nurse, but is trained in the art and science of caring for expectant mothers. Few families choose home birth, but the number who do is on the rise.

Midwife Alexa Richardson walks us through the care midwives provide--before, during, and after birth--to ensure mom and baby are safe and healthy. And Lauren Turner, who had both her children at home and is a doula, describes the visceral experience of birth.

In the first few pages of Sunburn, we learn that its main character has walked out on her family--just left her husband and young daughter on a Delaware beach, and hitchhiked west. As the tale unfolds, we’re treated to the tropes of film noir--slick dialogue as the protagonists circle each other in a mix of distrust and desperate infatuation. We talk to Laura Lippman about the inspirations behind her latest mystery.

Pancakes, waffles, ice cream--they all taste better with a drizzle of maple syrup. While Maryland isn’t known for commercial production of maple syrup, this month, you can get a locally-made taste at Oregon Ridge Nature Center. They tap maple and black walnut trees and turn sap turn into thick sweetness. We hear the ins and outs of making syrup and maple candy from the center’s Jessica Jeanetta.

Hemp literally shares roots with the same plant that produces marijuana--they’re both cannabis. But as marijuana laws loosen in most states, the laws surrounding hemp production--including in Maryland--remain rigid. Environmental reporter Rona Kobell explains industrial uses for hemp, and how it could provide farmers with a potentially profitable choice in their crop rotation. And we meet Anna Chaney, a hopeful hemp farmer who talks about how growing it can benefit the soil.

Two archeologists and scores of volunteers have been probing, digging, sifting and cataloging to unearth the mysteries hidden under a park in the city’s northeast corner. A big manor house no one knew about, and more. How does it all connect to the power families of old Baltimore? We hear about it from Jason Shellenhamer and Lisa Kraus, who direct the Herring Run Archeology Project. They entice their neighbors to get their hands dirty alongside them, digging up stories that reveal the past. Shellenhamer and Kraus give a talk on the project at the Engineers Club of Baltimore on Sun., Feb. 18 at 2pm. More info here.

For two-and-a-half weeks, testimony in the federal courtroom shocked some and confirmed the fears of others: witness after witness described an elite unit of the Baltimore police gone rogue, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, drugs, guns and luxury accessories while pretending the seizures were legitimate law enforcement. The trial ended last night with Detectives Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor convicted of fraud, robbery and racketeering. WYPR reporter Mary Rose Madden covered the trial, and she’s here in studio.

We’re four days away from the new year -- Lunar New Year. The Year of the Dog starts Friday, February 16. We talk with Colleen Oyler of the Walters Art Museum to hear what’s on offer at its celebration of the Lunar New Year this weekend--dances, music and art making and how it connects to the Walters’ famed collection of Asian art. And we ask Professor Wei Sun, principal and co-founder of the Baltimore Chinese School, what he’d like visitors to know about Lunar New Year.

Here’s a Stoop Story from Shindana Cooper about an ill-fated voyage with the Middle Passage Monument Project. You can hear her story and many others at stoopstorytelling.com, as well as the Stoop podcast.

Jack Burkert, senior educator at the Baltimore Museum of Industry, takes us back to the colonial origin of the Port, moving tobacco and then grain, and to the Port’s alliance with the B&O railroad expanding trade to the west. We hear about the human cargo--slaves, ripped from their families and sold to the South--as well as immigrants who passed through the port, seeking a new life in America.

High frequency buses, dedicated bus lanes, new routes - BaltimoreLink launched last June, a $135-million-dollar reboot of the city’s transit system. What is ridership like? Are buses running on time?

Kevin Quinn, head of the Maryland Transit Administration, gives us an update on service and technology changes. And transit activist and blogger Danielle Sweeney describes her work tracking no-show buses and fostering rider feedback.

In our monthly pulse-check with the alternative weekly Baltimore Beat, managing editor Brandon Soderberg shares his experience reporting from the robbery-extortion-and fraud trial of two former members of the Baltimore Police Gun Trace Task Force. Soderberg said it’s affected him more than any trial he’s covered. And, the Beat has labeled this week its annual sex issue. Editor-in-chief Lisa Snowden-McCray takes us on a visit to the legendary Millstream Inn Gentlemen’s Club. Read the whole issue and more at baltimorebeat.com .

FORECAST / JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health/Bloomberg American Health Initiative

The synthetic opioid fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more powerful than the painkiller morphine. Fentanyl has overtaken heroin and cocaine as the driving force behind the epidemic of deaths from opioid overdoses. But not because drug users seek it out. Often users are unaware that fentanyl--or an even stronger tranquilizer for large animals, called carfentanil--has been added to the drugs they buy. Some say knowing fentanyl is present would change how they use drugs.

The learning curve for beekeeping is steep. How do you make sure your bees are healthy and happy--and that they don’t sting you? Devra Kitterman, pollinator program coordinator for the Maryland Agricultural Resource Council, tells us about their beginning beekeeper course--and her work as a swarm catcher. And managing director Wes Jamison tells us what else you can do on the 150-acre farm park --from hiking and sunflower picking to learning how to back up a horse trailer.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Until he escaped Maryland--and slavery--at age 20, where did he live? Who did he rub shoulders with? Where did he work? Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Distinguished professor Lawrence Jackson and his students have created an interactive map of the time Douglass spent in Maryland. Jackson tells why exploring the physical environment helps us better understand Douglass’s growth as a black leader, starting as a product of his community.

That was a Stoop Story from Melani Douglass, great, great grandaughter of Frederick Douglass and founder of the nomadic Family Arts Museum. She told of a holiday party that turned ugly ... and setting the record straight with a racist guest. Particularly meaningful as we commemorate the 200th anniversary of Douglass’ birth this month. You can hear her story and many others at stoopstorytelling.com--as well as the Stoop podcast.

One of the most powerful forms of healing is peer support -- receiving advice and encouragement from someone who truly understands what you’ve been through because they’ve been through it, too. Our guests today live by that philosophy. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Society, or LEGS, says it provides "resources and emotional peer support for gentlemen who are diversely abled." LEGS co-founder Calvin Mitchell explains the distinction. We also hear from members Bong Delrosario and Derrick Waters.

Each day in the U.S. more than 86,000 older adults fall. That’s about one per second, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Falls are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries for the elderly.

We talk with Dr. Kelly Westlake and Dr. Mark Rogers, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who are working to help seniors react faster and stay safer if they take a tumble through innovative balance training.

The summer before he starts high school, 14-year-old Miles doesn’t have much to do but get into trouble. He smokes weed; fights with his younger sisters; clashes with his parents, who are divorcing; obsesses over a crush; has few friends; and takes his skateboard anywhere around Baltimore that might pierce his adolescent boredom. We know all this from his diary-- it is the just-published novel "Kill Me Now," by author Timmy Reed.

Reed will be speaking at Atomic Books on February 1 (in conversation with Madison Smartt Bell) and Bird in Hand on February 8th (in conversation with Jane Delury).

One hundred fourteen years ago, flames consumed Baltimore, turning entire city blocks into smoking rubble. How did Baltimore rise from the ashes? We speak to historian Wayne Schaumburg ahead of the fire's anniversary on February 7th.

Those who escape the clutches of human trafficking often face a hurdle in building a new life: A criminal conviction that stems from the coercion they endured--charges like trespassing or prostitution, can block them from a job--or safe housing or a scholarship.

Lawyers Jessica Emerson and Laurie Culkin from the Human Trafficking Prevention Project - a partnership of the University of Baltimore School of Law and the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service - describe how they help victims clear their criminal records.

Survivor advocate Shamere McKenzie tells us how she came to be trafficked and how charges arising from it have followed her. Shamere McKenzie is the Anti-Trafficking Program Director for the Salvation Army of Central Maryland, which runs a safe haven for victims of trafficking called Catherine’s Cottage.

We’ve been reporting on the United Way of Central Maryland’s statewide analysis that revealed a staggering statistic: one out of three households in Maryland has income above the federal poverty level … but not enough to cover basic necessities like food and housing. The acronym is ALICE: Assets limited, Income constrained, Employed. Last spring we interviewed two mothers who are ALICES … and wanted to check in with them again. In our conversation, Heather Housand talks candidly about trying to get ahead, and Victoria Cox explained how she’s navigated a job loss and several other obstacles over the past year.

Robin Wright has built her expertise in foreign affairs from the ground up. She reported from more than 140 countries on six continents for the Washington Post,the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine and other publications. Next month she’s off again to Moscow and the Middle East. Ahead of her appearance at the Baltimore Speakers Series, we asked what she expects could unfold next in North Korea and Iran.

Even before Mayor Pugh presented her new police commissioner to the press, Darryl DeSousa said, he had put into action his plan to curtail violence with waves of police on the street. We asked Councilman Brandon Scott and Councilman Ryan Dorsey, chair and vice of of the city council’s public-safety committee, how will that work? And executive director Ray Kelly gives us the view from the No Boundaries Coalition.

How do you depict the history of human migration through dance? Award-winning choreographer Peter Pucci has returned to his native Baltimore to put together a large-scale dance project called, Migration. It brings together local high school, college, and professional dancers, using movement and music to represent humankind’s connected lineage. Peter Pucci tells us about his unforeseen pivot from sports to dance, and why our linked ancestry matters. Migration will be performed on Sunday, January 28th in the Wellness and Athletic Center of CCBC Essex at 2 p.m. The performance is free, but tickets are required. More information here.